


The meaning of a bond

by Irisinally



Series: Following Pyxis [2]
Category: Granblue Fantasy (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, and seox's real name, still spoilers for SoR
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:46:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23144137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Irisinally/pseuds/Irisinally
Summary: The thread of fate brings people together, even if the paths they take are different.(Or, in which life continues, Seofon still wants Seox to join the Eternals and Seox hesitates because he has two troublemaking younger siblings.)
Relationships: Djeeta & Gran & Six | Seox (Granblue Fantasy)
Series: Following Pyxis [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1655008
Comments: 2
Kudos: 46





	The meaning of a bond

**Author's Note:**

> Part two! It'll have two chapters this time! I highly recommend reading the first part before this one, but I guess that's obvious.  
> Also, I put the twins' ages before every part. We'll jump in time a few times in this one.

After their father’s disappearance, a few of the neighbours started coming by their house from time to time to help them cook and clean the house. Xing clearly didn’t like this, at first. But as time went on and the neighbours ended up being more helpful than they had expected, the twins noticed how the other boy started talking more with them. He still didn’t start conversation on his own or removed his mask, but at least he answered when they talked to him. 

In any case, Xing was usually the one who organized the house, as he was the oldest. Gran and Djeeta helped where they could, but they were still little and they were more of a nuisance than a help in most cases. Xing never turned them away, though. 

Still, Xing got restless sometimes. He started fidgeting with whatever he was doing, be it cleaning or reading, and he looked around him more and more frequently - something they could now see, as he had stopped putting his mask on while they were alone at home - until he just stopped what he was doing and went for a run around the forest and probably trained by himself. Gran and Djeeta didn’t really understand why, but every time Xing came back from his training he looked calmer, so they didn’t mention it. 

What they had noticed was that Xing was much stronger than other kids his age. One of the times they’d gone into the village together to buy some food, Xing had helped a family carry their busted cart to their house. He didn’t even break a sweat. But when Gran commented on how strong he was, Xing had just… tensed, instead of maybe looking proud of himself. 

Xing still hadn’t told them anything about his past or why their father had saved him. They could wait.

\--10--

Gran heard some of the rumors that ran around the village for the first time when he went to buy some wood to repair their room’s ceiling that had cracked because of the previous night’s storm. 

It had been more than two years since their father had left. They got letters from time to time, with no return address and lots of interesting stories about new isles that their father was visiting for the first time. But they were still alone. Well, not alone, they had each other, but they were fatherless, which made life a little harder. Their neighbours helped them a lot, though, so it could have been worse. 

They were older now (Gran and Djeeta were ten years old now! Double digits!), so Xing let them go alone to the village and buy stuff they needed while he managed the house and garden, with the condition that Vyrn accompanied them. 

That day it was Gran’s turn, as was specified in Djeeta’s little calendar they’d planned when they started arguing about whose turn it was, so he was walking around with Vyrn, talking about the wood they needed to buy and how best to carry it home. Maybe they could borrow a cart? Gran was sure that Aaron’s dad wouldn’t mind. 

And then he heard it.

“Aren’t they like siblings at this point?” 

“Yes, I mean, they’ve been living together for years now and little Xing clearly treats them like they’re his troublemaking little siblings…”

Gran stopped just in front of the shop’s door and blinked at the giggles from two women a few meters away from them. 

“Well, they definitely take good care of each other.”

“Yes! It’s great that they can push forward together!”

“Gran?” called Vyrn and Gran shook his head to focus. He smiled at his dragon friend. 

“It’s nothing,” he said, but he shot a considering look at the two women that walked away, still smiling, still chuckling. 

He needed to talk with Djeeta and Xing. 

So he did. That very same day, when they were having dinner.

“Hey, do you think we could be considered siblings?” he asked, spoon still in the air and eyes focused on the table. 

Vyrn made a strangled noise and Xing absentmindedly reached out to thump him on his back with a hand. Djeeta tilted her head to the side. 

“Why do you ask?” she asked. Gran looked up for a moment, saw the confused gazes directed at him and looked down again. 

“I’ve heard people talking. And, well, I mean, I don’t know-” he rambled and stumbled over his own words. 

“Well, you’re practically family, aren’t you?” huffed Vyrn, little arms crossed. 

“It would be nice, wouldn’t it?” chirped Djeeta and she looked at Gran with a big smile that she didn’t waste time directing at Xing too. “Father sort-of adopted you, didn’t he?”

Xing was silent for a moment, eyes focused on his food as he moved his spoon in slow circles, lost in thought. Then he hummed.

“I guess he did, yeah,” he nodded in the end. The glance he shot them was fleeting and his voice was soft, but he continued, “I don’t remember very clearly how exactly he found me, but he took me away from there and told me that he would take care of me from then on.”

_So much for that,_ thought Gran and probably Djeeta and Vyrn too. But they didn’t say anything. They shared their father’s adventurous spirit and they loved him too much to resent him that chance. It still hu-

“Then we can call you big bro Xing officially!” cheered Djeeta and she threw her arms up, nearly throwing her spoon too. 

Xing startled, Vyrn made a satisfied noise and Gran grinned. He grinned very widely and looked at their new/old big brother.

Xing couldn’t hide his wide eyes, twitching ears and blush fast enough as Djeeta laughed loudly with Vyrn.

\----

In no time at all, the entire village knew them as siblings, which just made Gran and Djeeta grin like idiots, Xing blush and falter in his usual stoic charade and Vyrn tease all three of them. 

It was nicer than they had expected. 

What was also nice was going to Xing after having a nightmare. It wasn’t the usual for them, they hardly ever had any nightmares that shook them too bad, but there was always a chance. Before, they had gone straight to their father and he would let them curl up on his bed. The other twin would join them at some point, noticing thanks to some kind of sixth sense they shared that let them know when the other wasn’t okay, followed by Vyrn, who didn’t like to miss any sleepovers. 

Now that their father was gone, they started going to Xing. The first time they did that was because Gran had a nightmare that shook him to tears and quiet whimpers and Djeeta had dragged the three of them to Xing’s room just on the other side of the hall. Xing had been _really_ confused about it, not to mention half-asleep, but he let them climb in his bed with him and stay the rest of the night after seeing the tears on Gran’s face, the worry on Vyrn’s and the determined protectiveness on Djeeta’s, nonetheless.

They didn’t do it often, sometimes it was enough for them to be with their twin. But sometimes it was nicer to feel warm, to feel safe knowing that their strong big brother was there to protect them from anything that came their way, claws shining in the moonlight and eyes blazing in the dark. 

One of the neighbours had actually given Xing a set of claws as a present for his fourteenth birthday, saying that they knew how much he liked to train and how he favored melee fighting, that they wanted them to be safe and that they wanted to help, somehow. And thus, Xing started training with the claws, which were a beautiful turquoise color that Djeeta adored. 

It was during one of those training sessions that Gran and Djeeta finally asked him to let them train with him.

“You want to train too?” asked Xing, brows furrowed, as he adjusted his grip on the claws. 

“We want to know how to fight too!” nodded Djeeta, focusing her steely eyes on Xing’s blue ones. Gran nodded by her side, fists determined by his sides.

“We want to be strong, like dad and you,” he said and he had to push down the grin at Xing’s blush when he called him strong. He needed to be serious about this. “We want to be able to protect.”

“We want to help people,” finished Djeeta, with a sharp nod. 

Xing sighed softly and looked away from them, still fidgeting with his claws as he looked around at the trees surrounding them, clearly conflicted. Gran almost snickered. He really had the big brother protectiveness down to a t, didn’t he?

“Fine, you can train with me,” he said in the end after another longer sigh. Gran and Djeeta immediately grinned widely. Xing looked at them from the corner of his eye. “Your father- he taught you how to use a sword, right?”

“He taught us some basics,” nodded Gran. 

“He’s also your father now, you know?” said Djeeta with a sly smile. Xing’s only response was to huff out a laugh. 

“I think we can figure out the rest by ourselves and some books,” continued Gran like nothing had happened. 

“We’ll be able to beat you in no time,” said Djeeta with a big grin. 

“We’ll see about that,” replied Xing, mouth curling into a smirk and blue eyes teasing under the sun. 

\--11--

At first, both eleven year olds didn’t even know where to begin. They did mock battles, like their father let them do in the past, only this time with a pair of old rusted swords one of the villagers lent them. 

“You look like two children waving sticks around,” snorted Xing one day while he rested from his own training and the twins gave it a go in the middle of the clearing. 

Gran stopped and lowered his sword with a heavy sigh and a resigned smile, while Djeeta turned to glare at Xing with a pout. Her sword cut some grass as she moved it clumsily to point it at him. 

“Then teach us, genius,” she said, arching an eyebrow. 

For a worrying moment, Xing tensed, his uncovered eyes got colder and blank, until he shook his head and his mouth curled into a hesitant smile as he stood up from the rock he’d been sitting on for a few minutes and left his claws carefully on the grass.

“I’m not an expert at swordsmanship, but I’ve seen some people fighting with swords,” he explained slowly, almost to himself, as he got closer. “But- I think I remember a bit how they moved.”

“Your father was pretty good with a sword, wasn’t he?” asked curiously Vyrn from his perch on a tree branch. He was eating an apple, that lazy dragon. Of course he was. 

“Did you see dad fight?” asked Djeeta, bouncing on her feet. Xing just shook his head.

“I didn’t,” he answered simply. None of the twins asked him who he had seen fighting with swords, then. Xing took hold of Gran’s sword and weighted it in his grip for a second, before moving into a stance that Gran and Djeeta had seen in some of the books that were around their father’s study. “I think it was something like this?”

“Like this?” asked Djeeta, as she tried to replicate his stance. Xing looked over at her and then shook his head slightly. 

“No, more like this,” he said, and he gave the sword back to Gran, before moving to help Djeeta. 

“This?” asked Gran, but this time he was doing it deliberately wrong. Djeeta caught on easily and snorted, before changing her near perfect stance to the total opposite, slumping her shoulders like some kind of monster. 

“No, like this, Gran,” she said. Gran made a doubtful noise in the back of his throat. Xing shook his head with a small smile.

“I thought you were taking this seriously?” he teased. 

“We are!” yelled Gran and Djeeta at the same time, waving their swords in the air. 

Xing just snorted.

\----

After years of wearing his mask, Xing had started going out to the village without it. It still made him nervous, but he didn’t stutter as much as before and he could even have entire conversations with some of the villagers that he knew best. Gran, Djeeta and Vyrn were proud of him. Vyrn had rewarded him with an apple. Xing had just thrown it into the pot to make some kind of stew, maintaining eye-contact at all times. 

Gran and Djeeta were mostly amused at this development. You see, Xing was now a teenager. He was probably around fifteen years old, if they had to guess from what little Xing had finally told them about not knowing his exact birthday. He was also an erune among humans. He was also quite handsome, in their opinion. That meant that the other teenager girls - and some boys - around the village got interested in him. It always cracked them up how Xing seemed to be completely oblivious to it. Just for that, they started going to the village together, all four of them. 

It was during one of those weekly trips that the man who managed the mail approached them with something in his hand. He treated it like it was some sort of treasure, so both twins ran to him after crossing glances. The man smiled at them as Xing and Vyrn followed them at a more sedated pace.

“I’ve got mail for you four,” he said and, when Xing and Vyrn were finally in front of him, he handed them the letter. 

Xing hesitated for a moment, before taking it carefully and mumbling a thanks to the man. 

As the man left them alone again, Xing nodded at them so they could go to a more private and quiet place than the middle of the lively village to read their father’s letter. 

They walked out until they could sit on one of the rocky fences at one side of the path that led to their home and, a bit farther, the forest and mountains. With Grand and Djeeta at his sides and Vyrn perched on his head in a way that made his ears turn, Xing opened the letter so the four of them could read it, hearts thumping on their chests. It had been quite some time since their father’s last letter and, even though not one of them said anything, all of them had been kind of worried. 

_Estalucia is real._

“It’s not a legend, then,” mumbled Xing. Gran and Djeeta read the letter again, before Djeeta took it from Xing’s hands with a loud cheer and stood up, dancing to the middle of the path with a wide smile on her face. 

“We gotta go too!” she cheered, waving the letter in the air. 

“I wonder what kind of place Estalucia is,” said Gran, calmer than his sister, but his smile was as big as hers as he stood up to join her in her weird dance. 

“We’ll go, don’t worry,” nodded Xing, almost knocking Vyrn off his head. Vyrn grabbed one of his ears to stop his fall and Xing flinched and hissed through his teeth, reaching out to get Vyrn off. “But when you’re older.”

“Uh?” Gran and Djeeta froze in their twirling dance to stare at their older brother. 

“You’re eleven years old, you can’t expect to leave this island this soon.” Xing’s answering stare was unimpressed as his ear twitched. 

“But-!” protested the twins. Vyrn snorted as he flew around them. 

“The world is a dangerous place,” said Xing, and it was his serious tone that made the twins and Vyrn stop fooling around and slump their shoulders. Then, Xing sighed and smiled slightly. “At least, learn how to use a sword properly.” His eye glinted with something close to mischief as he stood up from the fence. “You’ll stay on this island until you can beat me in a fight.”

“What?” screeched the twins. Vyrn burst out laughing overhead. “Then we’ll never leave!”

\--12--

The twins weren’t the only ones who got nightmares. 

Xing was much more quiet and cautious about it. Gran and Djeeta had only started noticing in the last year, when their sleep had turned from deep to still-deep-but-less-deep. Some nights, they could hear Xing’s door open and, if they paid attention and the outside was quiet, they could hear his footsteps going down the stairs to the kitchen. They couldn’t hear any whimpers, any shaking, any laboured breathing. The next morning, Xing’s eyes weren’t red-rimmed. But he _did_ look more tired, more out of it, as if he was lost in his own mind, in his own memories, maybe, and his smiles were half-hearted at best. 

Their father’s memories had started becoming a little blurry. Sometimes, they couldn’t remember their father’s eye color. Sometimes, it was his laugh they had trouble remembering. But they still remembered how he’d said, as soon as he was back from getting Xing, that there had been some kind of emergency, how he’d had to save Xing from _something_ , how Xing struggled with… _everything_ in the next weeks since coming home. 

_I saved him. He’s going to live with us from now on._

_I did something bad… Something I shouldn't have…_

_You’re not alone anymore._

And then…

_I’ll tell you when you’re older._

Their father had said that he’d explain what happened to Xing when they were older. But he’d disappeared before doing so. He hadn’t told them anything and, as curious and worried as they were, they were hesitant to ask Xing himself. He always got drawn in on himself, he got quiet, too quiet, the very same way he had been when he got home. And they didn’t want to force him, of course, but- If they could _help_ him, somehow, he’d done so much for them already- 

So, one night, when they heard Xing’s faint footsteps climbing down the stairs to go to the kitchen after a probable nightmare, Gran and Djeeta crossed glances across the room and nodded. 

It was most likely cruel, to push him when he was probably tired and shaken by his nightmare, but they were _worried_ and they wanted to know what had hurt him so badly in the past. To help him. To support him. Just like he’d done with them. 

After waking Vyrn up, the three of them creeped down the stairs with a knot in their throats. It only grew when they finally stood at the kitchen door, watching as Xing poured himself a glass of water with shaking hands and sweat on his back and hair. 

“Xing?” called Vyrn in a small voice. 

Xing turned around immediately with wide eyes that seemed to glint under the moonlight in a way that made their hair stand on end. It only lasted a second, and in no time Xing closed his eyes with a long sigh that seemed to tremble slightly. The twins gulped.

“What are you three doing up? It’s late,” said Xing. There was something in his voice that made it clear that he wasn’t feeling up to the talk they wanted to have. 

“We… we were worried and…” started Gran, but he stumbled on his words as he fidgeted with his shirt. 

“We just… we wanted to ask…” continued Djeeta, her usual vividness gone from her voice. 

“About my past, uh?” finished Xing for them. He opened his eyes to look at them with a tired and hesitant gaze, before sighing again and drinking his water in one gulp. He looked away from them when leaving the glass on the sink. “Fine. It was time, anyway.” Djeeta, Gran and Vyrn crossed glances. “I’ll make us some hot chocolate, then.”

As Xing started ruffling through the cupboards to find the chocolate, the twins started doing their part and found four battered mugs. Xing appeared to be as in control of himself as always, but Gran saw him bit his lip, Vyrn saw how his ears twitched more than usual, Djeeta saw his hands shake slightly when taking the cups from them. He didn’t meet their eyes. Not when making the chocolate, not when handing them their cups, not when they finally sat at the table.

Xing sighed.

“I’m originally from the Karm Clan,” started explaining Xing, voice soft and _so_ far away. “It’s- _was_ , a clan of assassins. I was the son of the clan leader. I was a- a prodigy, I guess. The clan was afraid of me. My father locked me up because of it.”

“That’s so cruel!” jumped Djeeta, slamming her hands and her cup on the table and making the other jump, startled. For the first time since entering the kitchen, Xing met her eyes, wide and surprised. “You were a prodigy and he just- locked you up?! His own son?! That’s bull-!”

“Sis, language,” interrupted Gran with a hidden roll of his eyes. But he wasn’t less angry. Oh, no, Gran’s expression was as cold as ice and his hands shook where they were draped over his cup. “But, yes, she’s right. That was _really_ cruel.”

Xing looked between them, ears slightly turned down. They didn’t know if it was because his surprise, his hesitation or the weight of his memories. But soon after he lowered his head down again, eyes once again seeking his mug. 

“In any case, my father gave me a drug, said that if I could control myself the clan wouldn’t hate me anymore and I could even be the leader one day,” he continued, voice slightly more shaky than before. The twins wordlessly dragged their chairs closer to him, noisily, obviously. Xing’s hands tensed around his mug. “I took it. The rest is kind of a blur, but… I killed them. Every last one of them.”

It was at that moment that Xing completely abandoned his mug and burrowed his face in his trembling hands. The twins didn’t waste a second and practically threw themselves at him, draping their arms around his shaking frame and squeezing. Vyrn let himself fall on top of his head too, right between his flattened ears. 

Now they understood. They knew why, sometimes, their big brother got this lost and anguished look in his uncovered eyes when he thought they weren’t looking. They knew what memories haunted him at night, when he was most vulnerable. They understood why he’d been so conflicted about training, about his name, why his movements had been so mechanical when they had only wanted to have fun climbing stupid trees. 

“It’s not your fault, you know?” said Gran after a few minutes, when Xing had finally stopped trembling as much. He still covered his face, though. None of them could find it in them to peel his hands away. 

“He’s right, it’s not,” nodded Djeeta by his other side. 

“Technically, it’s your father’s fault for giving you that drug,” nodded Vyrn. 

“They were still my hands,” came from behind Xing’s hands. He only moved them enough to uncover his mouth. “They’re my hands the ones stained by blood.”

“Still your father’s fault,” grumbled Djeeta. 

“Also, this all wouldn’t have even happened if your clan hadn’t acted like idiots,” grumbled back Vyrn. 

“Still, I’m- dangerous, I-” mumbled Xing. Djeeta and Gran reared back so quickly that Xing, in his surprise, finally uncovered his whole face to look at them with teary and red-rimmed eyes. The twins almost huffed; their big brother was strong and gentle, tears didn’t belong on his face. 

“That’s only what your clan made you think,” seethed Djeeta. 

“You’re strong, yeah, but all the better to protect people, right?” continued Gran, frowning. 

“Say, Fuzzy Ears, have you hurt anyone from here these past years?” asked Vyrn, completely offhand. Xing jumped. 

“Of course not, I-!” he practically yelled, indignant and appalled. Vyrn smirked, as did Gran and Djeeta soon after.

“There’s your answer, then,” concluded Vyrn, satisfied. “You can be dangerous but still protect people. Like me!”

The twins crossed a glance, before bursting out laughing. 

“You? Dangerous?!” cackled the two. Vyrn fumed and got off Xing’s head to glare at them from the air. 

“Of course I’m dangerous, I’m a dragon!” he yelled, shaking his fist in the air, which only made the other two laugh harder. 

Xing, who had stared at the happenings with wide surprised and shocked eyes, blinked various times, before a snort broke out from his throat and he couldn’t help but chuckle as he wiped his face off of any lingering tears. He rubbed his eyes, taking care of any new tears that escaped his eyes. 

His eyes were amused when he looked at them arguing, they were calm, they were grateful, they were loving, they were light, they were _shining._

A soft “thank you” fell from his still trembling lips and the twins’ answer was a wide grin and trusting eyes.


End file.
